Cuba's Economic and Political Shift

Originally published in the Britannica Book of the Year. Presented as archival content. Learn more.

This article was originally published in the Britannica Book of the Year, an annual print publication that
provides an overview of the year’s most-notable people and events.
Unlike most articles on Britannica.com, Book of the Year articles are not reviewed and revised after their initial publication.
Rather, they are presented on the site as archival content, intended for historical reference only.

On March 20, 2016, U.S. Pres. Barack Obama arrived in Cuba, becoming the first sitting U.S. president to do so since the Cuban revolution in 1959. His visit was the culmination of efforts from both countries to bridge the divides that separated the two hemispheric neighbours. Hopes had been rising for such an outcome since Dec. 17, 2014, when Obama and Cuban Pres. Raúl Castro addressed their respective countries to announce the restoration of Cuban-U.S. diplomatic relations.

Obama and CastroCuban Pres. Raúl Castro (right) greets U.S. Pres. Barack Obama at the Palace of the Revolution in Havana on March 21, 2016. Obama became the first sitting U.S. president since the Cuban revolution in 1959 to visit the island.Chuck Kennedy—Official White House Photo

new Cuban commodities pricesA woman holds up a leaflet advertising the Cimex state company's new lower prices on April 22, 2016. The Cuban government announced that the price for commodities such as foodstuffs would be reduced by some 20%.Alejandro Ernesto/EFE/Newscom

Reconciliation began auspiciously. President Obama acknowledged that the U.S. could not “keep doing the same thing for over five decades and expect a different result.” He indicated that it was time to “end an outdated approach” and “cut loose the shackles of the past.” President Castro maintained that Cuba did not minimize the “profound differences” that continued to beset relations with the U.S., but he affirmed a “willingness to dialogue on all these issues” and emphasized the need to “learn the art of coexisting with our differences in a civilized manner.”

The timing for that remarkable policy change was propitious. For much of the decade since coming to power in 2006, Raúl Castro had sought to revive a moribund economy through a combination of reforms designed to expand small private enterprises (cuentapropismo), reduce government payrolls, encourage foreign investment, and promote private farming. The Cuban-U.S. rapprochement supported Cuban reform projects, with the U.S. extending assistance to entrepreneurial ventures, guiding the expansion of telecommunication capabilities, and aiding in the modernization of technology infrastructure. By 2016 the U.S. Department of the Treasury had removed nearly all limits on authorized remittances to Cuba from residents in the U.S.—a move that brought Cuba an estimated $3.3 billion in cash and goods annually. Direct mail service between the countries resumed in March 2016; the first cruise ship to sail from the U.S. to Cuba since the late 1970s docked in Havana in May; and in July the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) authorized FedEx to offer cargo services to Cuba.

Cuban efforts to promote private enterprises and expand private employment had achieved modest if uneven success. By 2016 an estimated 500,000 Cubans—approximately 27% of the total wage-labour force—were employed in the private sector, principally in the sale of foodstuffs, transportation, real estate, and small service enterprises. More than 70% of the wage-labour force remained employed by the state, earning an average monthly salary of $25. Those statistics suggested that the transition to cuentapropismo was far from complete.

Foreign investments increased in 2016, actively promoted by the Cuban government. “We must do away with archaicprejudices toward foreign investment,” President Castro exhorted the seventh Party Congress, “and continue to advance with the formulation, design, and establishment of businesses.” U.S. businesses had gradually expanded their presence in Cuba. The DOT authorized direct scheduled flights for eight U.S. airlines to service Cuba, and in August the first commercial flight between the two countries in five decades landed in Havana. In mid-2016 the U.S. hotelier Starwood Hotels & Resorts reached an agreement with Cuba to operate three historic hotels in Havana: the Inglaterra, Quinta Avenida, and Santa Isabel. The U.S. government in February granted approval for the first American factory in more than five decades to be built on the island. In March the U.S. Department of Agriculture authorized 22 industry-funded Research and Promotion Programs and 18 Marketing Order organizations “to conduct authorized research and information exchange activities with Cuba.”

The normalization of Cuban-U.S. relations served to boost foreign travel and increase foreign exchange earnings from tourism, which generated in excess of $2 billion in 2015 and provided employment for some 120,000 Cubans. In the first quarter of 2016, a total of one million travelers (including a record 94,000 Americans and 115,000 Cuban Americans) visited the island, a 15% increase over the first quarter of 2f015. An estimated 145,000 Americans—not including the hundreds of thousands of Cuban American visitors—traveled to Cuba in 2015—an 80% increase from the previous year. The Cuban Ministry of Tourism predicted that a record 3.7 million visitors would arrive in Cuba in 2016.

Tourism was a mixed blessing, however. The increase in foreign travelers introduced new stresses into straining infrastructure systems. Airport facilities were overwhelmed, and existing hotel accommodations proved inadequate. The projected growth rate in agricultural production failed to meet planned quotas, and Cuba continued to import an estimated $2 billion in foodstuffs annually, much of which could be produced locally. With those scarcities came price increases, and chronic shortages were reported in a number of commodities, including detergents, soaps, and paper products. In 2016 the government intervened to curb rising food prices, mandating the reduction of costs on basic food staples by as much as 30%.

The uneven pace of economic reforms reflected the uncertainties associated with a deepening crisis in Venezuela, especially concerns about diminishing oil supplies. By mid-2016 Cuba had experienced an estimated 20% decline in subsidized oil imports from Venezuela, and a new round of energy rationing and government exhortations to limit energy use, including through the reduction of work hours in government offices and restrictions in travel and air-conditioning, became necessary. “Logically,” President Castro explained to the National Assembly in July 2016, “that has caused additional tensions in the functioning of the Cuban economy.”

Uncertainties also resulted from the persistence of the dual currency system, whereby increasing numbers of goods and services passed from the state-subsidized ration book into the open market of convertible currency. Wages and pensions were generally inadequate to meet the basic needs of Cuban families who were employed in the state sector. The expansion of the tourist sector and the increase in private enterprise resulted in an internal “brain drain” as professionals employed by the state, including health care staff, teachers, technicians, and engineers, migrated into hard-currency sectors and abandoned salaries and wages in the national currency (moneda nacional).

Cuba and the U.S. continued to move only slowly toward the normalization of relations. The U.S. embargo against Cuba remained in effect, as did the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act, under which undocumented Cuban émigrés were paroled upon entering U.S. territory. In addition, the U.S.-based censor-free Radio Martí continued to broadcast, and U.S. claims and Cuban counterclaims for indemnification remained unsettled. The U.S. also refused to acquiesce to Cuban demands for the return of the territory seized in 1898 on which Naval Station Guantánamo Bay was established. Cubans were pressed by the Obama administration to expand the market economy, to adopt political reforms, and to accept the norms of civil society. “We remain convinced the people of Cuba would be best served by a genuine democracy,” exhorted U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, “where people are free to choose their leaders, express their ideas, practice their faith…where institutions are answerable to those they serve; and where civil society is independent and allowed to flourish.” All of those points were very much reminiscent of the pursuit of change that characterized the previous 50 years of U.S. policy. Cuba moved cautiously toward normal relations, wary of U.S. intentions. “Relations with the United States have historically represented a challenge for Cuba,” stated President Castro, “given their permanent pretension of exercising domination over our nation.” Although both countries were exercising caution, in mid-2016 one senior U.S. Department of State official assured that “slow and steady progress” was being made.